Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

More pics

Looking good!!!!

How are the water bridges working for you? Had any fish try to do the swim the tube trick?

I'm making a trip all over the place today. John found a crazy good deal on a 100 AH Powersonic battery so I'm making a drive over to Sanford to pick it up. TNRBatteries.com
Then I'll swing down to Skycraft to get a power adaptor and perhaps also the inverter. Then across to Aquatic Eco Systems for some netting and other stuff to make some fish cages to divide up my lot in the big tank and I'll probably ask about what sort of food would be best for the young ones. They do seem to like the Cichlid flakes though. Then back home. (Yesterday we ran wires from the garage out to the system and I tested out the water sensor so that works. I'll get you pictures when I have it hooked up right.)

Oh how cool!!!.. You mean that contration actually sensed water? I'm a little unsure myself of what to feed my babies. I'm giving them some brine shrimp, ground catfish food and algae right now. I remember Janet had an egg mixture that she fed her young fry. I'll have to go back and find that post.

I'd be interested to see how you mounted the level sensors in the tank. I'll designing that two channel board that we talked about to run my sump in the new GB.

Wow, certainly coming together nicely Jazz ... great stuff

Cichlid flake will be fine,.....,,they are Cichlids.
Better to find something much cheaper for when they get bigger,,catfish food should be good (I asume it's around 30% protein).
If you can get trout starter feed (Around 45% protein) this is good for baby's.
Don't for get their greens!!!! Lettuce etc.

Thank Chappo. That's good to know. I use catfish food that is 35% and I've been crushing up a few pellets at a time and feeding to the babies along with the brine shrimp. The trout starter sounds like a good choice though since it's high in protein and that's what the fry need.

Coolness JPM. How do you remove/keep air locks out of the water bridges?

I've been using them for only about a month now but haven't had any problems. I build the 'U' shaped bridge, submerse it and cap it on both ends while it's still under water. The fittings are pretty airtight if you give them a little spin.

Then I put it on the tanks and remove the end caps. Both ends have to be under water though when you remove the caps or it will loose prime. After that, there's really no way it can fail unless air is allowed to get in.

Those fry are looking great!

Fry food that I make up for the first week or so:

1 hardboiled egg yolk
1 packet of yeast
pinch of sugar
couple pinches of flour

Mix the yeast and sugar in a few spoonfuls of warm water and let it grow for 20 minutes. Add the egg yolk and blend until smooth. If the mix comes out too runny for your liking, add a couple pinches of flour. It will thicken over time in the refrigerator, too.

Feed 4-5 times per day by dipping your finger in the food and dispersing it into the tank water.

After the first week, the fry should be large enough to take powdered flake.

I get little bubbles forming on the surfaces of things like from algae, and from the vacuum that is up there at the top of the bridge. Over time these could accumulate to form an air lock. If your water has good DO then this can come out as bubbles in the low pressure area at the top of the bridge. Might want to put some barb-style valves on the top pipes? Do the barrels have overflows on them?

My babies grew up eating the crud on the sides of the sump tank, and other solids they could scrounge. Once they were big enough I fed them crushed pellets.

Thanks Janet. I'll make some up this afternoon.

No Dave. There are no overflows on the barrels. I do have alarms built into the system if certain level sensors aren't seen on a regular basis. They would trigger before any real damage was done. I could easily sense the levels in the tanks and add that to the alarm. It's not foolproof though, it doesn't ring my cell phone or anything that cool, just turns on a light that I can see from my house.

Mark,
Aquatic Eco Systems has high protein starter food. I got some meal but I don't know if it is appropriate for the really small fry but hopefully so. My younger fish that I just got really like cichlid flakes though they will get pricey so some of the other food from AES might be in order until the little guys get big enough to switch to the catfish food or pond diet.

AHH almost forgot,, Tilapia prefer smaller pellets than what you would think appropriate ,, I only use 5mm ( less than quarter inch) even on fish near the 500gramme ( one pound) mark. If their not swallowing the pellets whole ,, or spitting them out after taking them get smaller pellets.
Also good to leave about 8 hours between feeds , the way a Tilapias stomach works means that any food swallowed when stomach is still full just passes the stomach and head out the pooper tube ,, .